Brancepeth Castle stands within a mile from the River Wear, a little to the south of the village of the same name. There was undoubtedly a castle there in the twelfth century, towards the end of which it passed, by the marriage of Emma, widow of Peter de Valoignes, and only child of Bertram de Bulmer, to Geoffrey de Neville, from the former to the latter family.
The present castle is stated by Leland to have been erected by Ralph, first Earl of Westmorland. It was defended north and east by a moat; south and west the walls rise from a rock nearly forty feet in height. The original gateway, defended by a portcullis and flanked by square towers, stood on the site of the present gate, and was approached from the north. It has been destroyed. It opened directly into the courtyard, south-west of which are the residential parts of the castle.
There were, when Hutchinson wrote, four towers, closely conjoined. Three of these remain, containing respectively the dining-room, saloon, and the baron’s hall. The destroyed tower stood north of the last mentioned, but was not so high. It contained three stories, and was probably, as Mr. Boyle has suggested, the great hall.
The projecting angles of the towers are surmounted by small turrets, eight in number, the arrangement consisting of two sides rising directly from the sides of the buttresses on which they are built, whilst the other two are machicolated, the parapets resting on corbels.
Two other towers now standing at either end of the billiard-room are respectively used as the chapel and the library. The castle possesses a number of other interesting features.
Amongst the pictures is one by Hogarth, painted for the first Viscount Boyne, and representing several members of the Hell-fire Club. They are supposed to have assembled in a wine-cellar, and resolved not to part until its contents have been consumed. Sir Philip Hoby is depicted sitting on a cask of claret. Immediately behind him, with his hand held up, is Mr. De Grey, and below him is Lord John Cavendish, who has drawn a spigot from the cask to let the wine flow into a bowl. Lord Sandwich is kneeling down, holding a bottle to his mouth. Lord Galway lies extended on a form, in such a position that the liquor from a cask above him is flowing into his mouth. The arrangement of the four central figures is a clever imitation of a statue of Charity shown in the cellar.
There is some fine armour in the present and modern great hall, amongst others a suit richly inlaid in gold, and traditionally said to have been taken from the Scottish King after the Battle of Neville’s Cross, although really it is of Elizabethan date.
The existing castle in Durham City, long the principal seat of the Episcopal Princes, largely helps, with its frowning walls and grim battlements, standing side by side with the cathedral, to make Durham one of the most picturesque cities in this country.
The castle is approached from the north-west corner of the Palace Green, a short avenue leading to the gateway, which was modernized by Bishop Barrington. The iron-bound gates were placed there by Bishop Tunstall, and one of them contains a wicket which is the subject of one of Spearman’s amusing anecdotes. He states that Bishop Crewe had been pressing Dr. Grey, Rector of Bishopwearmouth, and Dr. Morton, Rector of Boldon, to read King James’s declaration for a dispensing power in their parish churches. Both declined and began to argue against it, when the Bishop appears to have lost his temper. He told Dr. Grey that his age made him dote, and that he had forgotten his learning. "The good old Doctor briskly replied he had forgott more learning than his Lordship ever had. ‘Well,’ said the Bishop, ‘I’ll forgive and reverence you, but cannot pardon that blockhead Morton, whom I raised from nothing.’ They thereupon took their leave of the Bishop, who with great civility waited upon them towards the gate, and ye porter opening ye wikett or posterne only, ye Bishop said, ‘Sirrah, why don’t you open ye great gates?’ ‘No,’ says ye Reverend Dr. Grey, ‘my Lord, wee’le leave ye broad way to your lordship, ye strait way will serve us.’"
The gateway leads directly into the courtyard. A door and flight of steps in the wall to the left leads into the Fellows’ Garden, formerly the private garden of the Bishops, through which they could enter Bishop Cosin’s library.